There are men and moods and times when only a good knowledge of human nature and a thorough sizing up of a customer will enable the salesman to get what he goes after. Also there are occasions when the most expert salesman will meet at least temporary defeat.
By the time you have exchanged a few sentences with your prospect, you can size him up fairly well and can get a pretty good idea of what you are up against, and how difficult a task is before you in order to interest him, to change his thought, to neutralize his natural prejudice against every one who has anything to sell, and against you in particular. There is a natural barrier, at first, between two people who meet under such conditions, and it depends largely upon you as a man, upon your talk, your ability to open up your nature, to show the best side of yourself, the attractive, the popular, magnanimous side, whether you gradually change the prospect’s opposition to indifference, his indifference to interest and his interest to desire to possess what you have to sell.
You should never argue with a customer in the sense of quarreling or disputing with him, but there are times when you must reason with him, to show him he is wrong. Do not, however, make a customer feel “cheap,” or humiliated, or anger him by opposition, especially in matters outside of your business.
I have in mind a salesman who had practically closed a big order with a prospect when some allusion was made to the political situation. The salesman reflected upon the administration, and the prospect jumped on him with both feet and became so angered that he positively refused to give him the order.
Now, this salesman was not there to discuss politics or to convince his prospect that he was on the wrong side of any public question. He was there to sell his goods and not to talk politics.
No matter what happens never lose your head and never, under any circumstances, show resentment or disappointment or allow yourself to be drawn into an argument. There is always a temptation to have the last word, and it is of the utmost importance that you should leave a pleasing picture of your call. Otherwise when you return the association of a disagreeable experience may bar you out.
Some sales managers do not believe in paying any attention to objections. They say it is best to make the salesman so familiar with his goods, and so enthusiastic about them, that he will forestall all objections, or overcome them by ignoring them, in the sense that he will not try to answer objections if they are made, and he will not talk or act as if he expected any to be made. There is a certain amount of sound philosophy in this attitude, but it is my opinion that a salesman will have more confidence in himself, and will be better equipped for many emergencies, if he has been thoroughly coached in the most commonly met objections, by having good, sound answers right at the tip of his tongue.
Never meet objections by cutting prices.
It is the easiest thing in the world to prejudice a prospect’s mind by offering to cut prices. He will think you are doing it to get his first order, and that you will make it up the next time. He is watching you with “all his eyes.” His perceptive faculties are on the alert, ready to catch any unguarded word, the slightest contradiction, measuring up the improbabilities in your argument. In other words, he is trying to find holes in your proposition. It is human nature to brace up against a new salesman and to try to down him with objections. Don’t destroy confidence at the start by price cutting.